The Mechanical Man by André Deed

In conjunction with Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe, the Guggenheim is pleased to screen André Deed’s 1921 film The Mechanical Man. Directed by André Deed in 1921, The Mechanical Man parallels an attempt by young Italian artists, writers, and activists of the same period to link the Futurist avant-garde with communist proletariat culture through the cult of the machine. The film tells the story of a city under siege by a giant robot. After the police are unable to stop its reign of terror, a second mechanical man is sent to confront the robot in a dramatic showdown at the local opera house. The film was long considered lost, but the discovery of a fragmentary Portuguese version of The Mechanical Man in Brazil led to this re-release in 2005. Courtesy of Alpha Video.